The economy has taken centre stage on day two of the federal election campaign, with the Reserve Bank tipped to cut interest rates to a historic low this afternoon.

All but one of the 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect the RBA board will cut the cash rate by 25 basis points to 2.5 per cent.

Most mortgage holders would argue lower interest rates are a good thing, but the Coalition is painting a rate cut as just the opposite.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says while low interest rates are good, a cut today would also be a sign that Australia's economy is in trouble.

"There is no doubt that a reduction in interest rates is a good thing, but you have to ask yourself why are interest rates likely to be cut?" he said, while campaigning in Wyong on the New South Wales Central Coast.

"Interest rates may well be cut because the Reserve Bank is concerned about the state of our economy.

"If interest rates go down, it is because this Government is presiding over an economy which is in much more trouble than Government has previously been prepared to admit."

A senior economist at Westpac, Huw Mackay, says such concerns could eventually see the rates drop as low as 2 per cent.

"After today's projected move, we'd be looking for another half of a per cent, and we'd be expecting that timing to be early 2014 for the trough to be reached," he said.

Analysts agree that any lowering of interest rates today will be the first of two or three cuts in the next year.

Sally Auld, an interest rates strategist at JP Morgan, says the non-mining sectors need more stimulus if they're going to take over as Australia's leading source of growth.

"My sense is that the RBA is just becoming a little bit more worried about the impending drop-off in mining sector investment and the lack of momentum in the non-mining economy, and that exposes the Australian economy to a period of potentially quite soft growth," she said.

"There's perhaps a little bit more proactivity coming in from the RBA in terms of managing the demand cycle."

Election 'not a factor' in decision

Ms Auld says the central bank had previously increased rates during a campaign, so it wouldn't hesitate to cut the cash rate if deemed necessary.

"Back in 2007, the RBA's move was perhaps a little bit more controversial just simply because interest rates were actually very important to the household sector and the electorate at that point in time," she said.

"I think it's a very different sort of story now, and there's much less anxiety around the level of mortgage interest rates, and so interest rates in themselves aren't really as big a deal as they might have been in 2007."